Into the breach!

Well, today it finally started raining. Living in mid/northern California is a little confusing at times. For example, it's been dry, but cloudy off and on since October. It's also been very brightly sunny and hot enough for tanktops. Last time I checked, it's Winter. While I know it doesn't generally snow where I live, I would like the weather to take some notice. Of course, that's easy for me to say, isn't it? 2 hours north of me it's been pouring. And, well, I think last winter there were record rains where I was. But this year? This feels like a really mild summer.....for months.

Still, it could be worse.

Bear in mind, your fearless heroine is typing this from inside a work cafeteria. I had blithely determined that a break in the weather meant that I and my umbrella should high-tail it to a cafe at work which has Pho (noodles and meat or veggies in hot broth). So, I did - and I took a detour to get some extra walking in as well since I missed my workout in order to sleep in this morning, something I hope will help me convince my body that I don't really have this cold that has been threatening me. About half-way through my detour - at literally the farthest point from any buildings, it decided to pour. Classic. In fact, so classic that I had my umbrella prepared. However, that simple umbrella did not stop me from being soaked from the knees down - with spots on my back and chest, on my face, and in my hair.


Needles to say, even though I've finished my lunch (I smartly worked while slurping my soup), I'm in no rush to go back outside any time soon........... but I didn't bring a charger, and that means that my working from this cafe must needs come to an end. Shivering in my soaked jeans, this seems incredibly cruel of fate. What was so compelling about the Pho that I started off on this foolhardy adventure anyway? I can only imagine that it has to do with the fact that my usual dinner Pho-buddy, J, has been busy with things like having a baby and I just wanted a little taste of our old treat. In the scheme of things, getting your legs soaked when you've got a cold and forgot your jacket on a windy and rainy day just to have a little nostalgia isn't really that bad of a tradeoff.

But I'm totally going to make myself a latte when I get back to my building and desk. Just sayin'

The Husbean and the Pea

So, it's February, about time for my usual flurry of posts before I go dark for the rest of the year.

Today's post is about my Husbean (Husband). Some of you might recall that I got married in October last year, so he will henceforth be called the Husbean. I like adding the word bean after people's names, so this seemed like a natural evolution.


Ahem, anyway, there was a story here somewhere, oh yeah:

The Husbean and the Pea.

- This is what I was muttering in irritation against my pillow as I dug back under the blankets around 4am this morning, prior to a wide-eyed insomnia which lasted about a half hour. How did he warrant such a title? Well, are you familiar with the story The Princess and the Pea? In this children's story, a Princess proves she's truly a princess by her finiky sleeping habits. She can literally feel a pea placed underneath the bottom mattress of 40 she's sleeping on (Note, I think the actual number of mattresses isn't pertinent. The point is there are TOO MANY for her to know there was a pea beneath them). She proves that not only is she a pain in the ass, but that she's a ROYAL pain in the ass.

Last night, or I guess it would more accurately be this morning, I awoke because my husband had awoken and was galumphing about. Once awake, and after asking what he was doing and receiving his sleep yet intelligible answer, I could barely hear in the distance a recurring beep. Apparently it was the alarm system telling us that one of our smoke detectors had quick. The alarm in question was squeaking a louder, yet less often manner - and was impossible to locate as it was being over-come by the alarm system beeping. I mused sleepily: WHY DOES THIS ONLY HAPPEN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE $&*#ING NIGHT? It was approximately 5 minutes later that the Husbean's cell phone rang. It was the alarm company wanting to let us know that one of our fire alarms was out and were we ok.

It was at about this point that I decided to get up and figure out where the damn thing was. The alarm company did call a second time, by the way. And we did eventually find the "hallway" smoke alarm it was trying to warn us about---in my fiber room.


But why is this called the Husbean and the Pea? I sleep closer to the alarm (if only by a few feet), I sleep with nothing in the way, no ear plugs, white noise, etc. I slept through the alarm and the alarm about the alarm. My husbean - who sleeps with earplugs and sometimes cotton in his ears (yes, literally), who also has a CPAP mask strapped to his face and a machine next to his head woke up the second it started going off. Much like the Princess and that fateful pea....he sensed the disturbance in the force and was awake.

So why can't he wake up when his alarm goes off at 6:30?